Wednesday, December 17, 2008

It's almost as if the game doesn't matter

Ohio State is making tickets for the Fiesta Bowl available to the public Wednesday, just one signal that the Buckeyes' latest trip to Arizona isn't the most popular party of the season.

"For fans who want to travel and don't want to spend a lot of money, this is the year to go because prices are being slashed," said Anbritt Stengele of SportsTraveler.net, a Web site specializing in sports travel packages. "Fiesta Bowl interest is low, extremely low, and what Ohio State fans have been telling me is that after the national championship games, why should we bother? There's nothing at stake."

The reason why I've never gotten into college football as I have other sports is plain and simple: the bowl season. College football is a great game and I can't put into works how much I enjoy OSU football and how I cherished my time at the Horseshoe. But that's as far as I can get.

I've never gotten the hype about the bowls. Ever. This year no. 10 Ohio State is playing no. 3 Texas and only one team has anything 'real' at stake (and even that is pushing it). OSU is playing for what, sixth place? If Texas wins handily (gulp) they could give themselves a shot at a share of the National Championship, so Texas has every reason to run up the score and whoop the Buckeyes. Ohio State just wants to put up a good show that they can point to when they're out recruiting (winning would help this). It's really a glorified exibition game.

The fact that OSU fans aren't coming out in droves isn't exactly surprising. The economy sucks balls, they've been to Phoenix multiple times over the past 5 years and the Buckeyes have suffered some bad losses to top teams from other conferences (including the last two bowl games). The odds are that the Bucks are gonna get killed, in a meaningly football game. Awesome.

I imagine if this was an early round playoff matchup, I'd wager you'd see more interest from OSU fans.